Five Bollywood actors, including action film megastar Salman Khan, have been charged with killing two rare deer in an Indian wildlife preserve 14 years ago.

Lawyer KL Vyas said Khan had been charged with shooting blackbucks, an endangered type of curly-horned antelope which is increasingly limited to wildlife parks.

Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre and two others allegedly abetted the crime by encouraging him while hunting in the state of Rajasthan.

The Indian court system is notoriously slow and it often takes years or even decades for a case to go to trial.

They are accused of poaching two blackbucks during the evening of October 1 and into the early morning of October 2, 1998, in Kankani village near Jodhpur during the shooting of the film Hum Saath Saath Hain.

If convicted, the actors could face up to six years in prison. They deny the charges.

Four of the accused appeared before a magistrate in Jodhpur on Saturday.

Khan was also supposed to have appeared in court, but failed to do so.

Indian media reported on Friday that the actor is currently in the US for medical treatment for trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve condition.

Khan is one of the biggest names in the Mumbai-based Bollywood film business, having appeared in more than 80 Hindi-language films.

He has appeared in India's highest grossing film of the year nine times. Five of his films have earned more than $18m (£12m) at the Indian box office - something only 20 Bollywood films have done in total and more than any other actor.

Blackbucks are a protected animal and hunting or poaching them is punishable by law.

Saif Ali Khan is a descendant of an Indian aristocratic family and is married to Kareena Kapoor, another of the biggest actors in Bollywood.

On Thursday, another Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt had a conviction for illegal possession of weapons upheld, and the leading man now faces time in prison.